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If you’re the type of K-pop fan that flips through the lyric booklets of your albums, you’ve probably come across the name Adora more than a handful of times.
Up until recently, Adora was mainly known as an in-house producer at HYBE Labels (then still Big Hit Entertainment) where she worked alongside the likes of Slow Rabbit and Pdogg on songs for acts such as BTS, TXT, and the now-disbanded GFriend from her Adorable Trap studio. During her time at HYBE, Adora’s credits spanned across production, writing and arrangement, as well as backing vocals. She contributed to projects like GFriend’s 回 series, TXT’s The Dream Chapter and Minisode 1: Blue Hour, as well as BTS’s Love Yourself trilogy and Map of the Soul albums. She’s also helped BTS members on many solo projects — from RM’s mono to Agust D’s D-2, J-Hope's “Blue Side,” and V’s “Winter Bear.” The list of acknowledgments she has amassed is nothing short of impressive, but now you won’t have to flip through as many pages to find her name — because it will be on the cover.
In late October 2021, it was announced that Adora had signed an exclusive contract as an artist with a new agency called AURA Entertainment. Following a slew of teasers shared across her newly launched official social media channels, Adora finally made her debut as a soloist on November 5 with her first ever single “MAKE U DANCE,” a mellow pop-dance number featuring Eunha of VIVIZ. This succession of events might seem awfully quick, but Adora’s on-stage career has been a long time coming.
Behind the moniker is 24-year-old Park Soo-hyun, a Seoul native with over half a decade of experience in the industry. Way before she made a name for herself as a producer, songwriter, and vocalist — and way before she even auditioned to join HYBE in 2016 — fans would know Adora used to be an idol trainee set to debut with a girl group called The Ark under Music K Entertainment. But the seed had been planted even before that. “I started to grow my dream as a singer when I was very young, watching the music shows on TV in Korea,” Adora tells Teen Vogue over Zoom. “Initially, it wasn't really the singing that attracted me. I was more interested in dancing. Naturally and gradually with that passion, I had a desire to be on the stage, which meant I wanted to be able to sing. With that, I grew the desire to be able to produce my own music that I could perform on stage. But I don't think there was necessarily a shift that happened in my passion. I enjoyed dancing a little bit more, but as I watched idols dancing and singing on stage, I grew that same desire to perform just like them.”
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Following that desire, Adora ended up behind the scenes, and that’s how her pseudonym was born. When she first started off as a producer, she needed a nickname, so she looked to her favorite webtoon, Winter Woods, for inspiration. It’s not uncommon for artists to change stage names when they take on a new project — especially in the K-pop realm. For example, GOT7 member J.B. became JAY B after leaving JYP Entertainment earlier this year. In 2019, Dawn also adopted his now well-known new name after joining P Nation as a soloist. But Adora, who’s sometimes also affectionately referred to as Dora, still feels a strong connection to her original moniker. “At first I thought it would be good to differentiate my two identities as a producer and a singer, so I did think about coming up with a new name,” she explains. “But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the connotation and the vibe that the name of Adora had. I wanted to continue using this name because I'm not finished as a producer. I'm continuing on this journey, so I wanted to carry the name into my solo career as well.”
Adora might just be stepping out on her own, but eyes have been on her for a while. A quick YouTube search will bring up not only her current single but also multiple compilation videos of her ethereal “hidden” or backing vocals in both BTS and TXT songs, as well as a handful of her covers — from IU’s “Into the I-Land'' to Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.” Though she’s immensely grateful, receiving support while being behind the scenes and in the limelight feels different, and she doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge the variance. The singer admits that it feels extra special now that she knows the love she is getting is 100% centered on her, even if surely a lot of her fans have been following since before.
But it’s not just fans who are keeping Adora on their radar. As she embarks on her new chapter, Adora’s past colleagues are also following along. Members of TXT as well as HYBE producers Pdogg and Slow Rabbit have already shown support for her solo venture. Given that her former coworkers are so clearly supportive, it’s only natural to wonder why she left the company in the first place. “The biggest reason why I decided to leave HYBE was because of my health,” Adora shares. In October 2019, she had surgery — “Don’t worry, it wasn't a big surgery” — followed by a months-long rest period to recover. “That break was a time of self-reflection for me. I was reminded of and rediscovered my dream of wanting to be able to sing and produce my own songs. That’s when I made that decision. I wanted to create my own songs that I could perform as a singer.”
“Up until now, I've kind of been part of the crew, the staff behind the scenes. Now I'm at the front line, I’m the frontman, so it's still a little bit awkward,” Adora continues. “There are still things that I'm adjusting to. It's a learning stage of growing into that role.”
Adora might still feel a little bit underripe as she finds her solo footing, but "MAKE U DANCE" is anything but. Alex, CEO of Aura Entertainment, shares that, given its scale, Adora’s debut had been carefully planned. Adora herself and the company had all the pieces of the puzzle, but it was just a matter of finding the best way to connect them and choosing what would be her presentation letter as a soloist. When Adora walked in one day with the first demo of "MAKE U DANCE," everybody knew that was it. Alex adds that it took her “less than a week” to create the melody for the song.
Debuting with a collaboration is not a typical move, but it felt like the most natural one for Adora. The singer enlisted the help of Eunha, formerly a member of GFriend and now part of the trio VIVIZ alongside former members SinB and Umji. “When I was writing the song, I actually didn't think about a feature initially. It was in the process of completing the song that someone suggested a collaboration with another artist, and at that time I thought it was a great idea to be able to partner with someone else to complete the song,” Adora explains. “Even though I had previously worked with the members of GFriend, I didn't actually get to see them. I never actually had a personal relationship with them.” Someone she new suggested Eunha, a fit that seemed perfect for the song. “That was actually the first time we met face to face. When I first met her and we were getting to know each other, she was also at a stage in her life where she was preparing for a new beginning, so I thought it was fate.”
It’s not even been a month since Adora’s debut, but she’s already got many things in store for fans in 2022, when she is preparing to release new music. Meanwhile, she’s focused on her growth as a musician, performer, and person.
“I want to show my fans of my inner improvements,” she says. “I'm continuously working on myself and developing and growing over time. Even though right now I don't know exactly what direction I'll be headed, even if I make the wrong turn, I want to be a person who knows how to reflect, turn back and keep sailing forward and moving and growing as I move. It will be a lie if I said that results don't matter, but I don't want to value that above everything else. I want to be an artist who is able to receive positive energy and knows how to give and share it back.”
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